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_{Photo copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)}

Game #4, Home Game #2: Minnesota 125, San Antonio 129

Season record: 1-3

1. The Offense Finally Arrives

After back-to-back 85-point games in which their talent was squandered by strategic disarray,  the Wolves' offense performed with potent logic and efficiency in Wednesday night's highly enjoyable double-overtime loss to the Spurs. Minnesota scored a mere 5 points in the game's first 6:25, then shared the ball and gathered individual virtues into team synergy to put up 120 more in the remaining 51:35. The early catalyst was Mike Miller, looking for his outside shot more aggressively than at any point in the young season thus far, banging in 12 of the team's first 14 points on a succession of jumpers no nearer than 16 feet away from the hoop. This was a crucial first step in the process of generating spacing, which should be the offensive mantra of every Minnesota partisan this hoops season. With Miller establishing himself as an outside threat, Al Jefferson had more room to operate in the paint.

Then things fell in line: Point guards Randy Foye and Bassy Telfair emphasized ball movement to further capitalize on the defensive scramble the spacing generated; Kevin Love used his outside shooting touch and ability to crash the weakside boards to generate mismatches among San Antonio's big men and swing me; and Corey Brewer capitalized on opponents ignoring him to cut baseline for layup attempts and flash to the corner for open jumpers. When the dust cleared, the Wolves had assisted on 35 of their 47 baskets, versus just 10 turnovers in 58 minutes. Foye (9/2) and Telfair (10/1) combined on 19 assists and just 3 miscues. Jefferson led the team with 30 points (12-27 FG, 6-9 FT) while Miller chipped in 25 (10-19 FG, 5-7 3pt), adding 7 rebounds and 6 dimes. Last year's notorious clankers, Brewer and Telfair, nicely split the difference between judiciously conservative shot selection and keeping defenses honest, going a combined 8-17 FG and 7-7 FT. Love was 4-13 FG but got to the line 6 times (5-6 FT) and seized four offensive rebounds out of his 9 total.

There were a few glitches in the plan. Shaddy McCants was unable to work himself into the mix, going 3-8 FG (1-5 3pt) in just 13:24. Despite a relatively strong overall game, Foye continued to demonstrate some mental yips, committing a ghastly, unforced turnover that prevented his team from having a chance to win it with 2 seconds left in regulation (he hesitated and then threw the ball right to Spur Michael Finley) and then traveled with the score tied and 1:05 left in the first overtime. The opening quarter found everyone but Miller shooting 1-12 FG (and everyone but Tony Parker on the Spurs shooting 2-12 FG).  And on the other side of the ball there was this small matter of Parker wilding on a career-high 55 points despite being energetically defended most of the time by Corey Brewer, who forced Parker to beat Minnesota with jump shots. So he did.

But what Wolves team members and their fans should take away from this game (if only for their emotional stamina)  was how well the Wolves' offense adjusted to defensive counter-attacks, not just in the give and take the run-up to the final quarter, but in the fast-paced, offensive slugfest of that four period, when 67 points were scored. With Minnesota down 7, 79-86, with 8:08 to play, you had Jefferson feeding Brewer for a layup out of a double team, then Foye finding Miller and kicking it out to him for a trey. A couple of dimes by Gomes--to a driving Brewer and out to Miller for yet another 3-pointer--was rewareded in turn with a dish to Gomes by Foye for a lay-up to tie the score just three minutes later, with 5:04 to go. Then it was Telfair's turn to feed a Miller trey and a layup by another teammate (this time Foye),

With the score knotted at 97 with 3:30 to go, there was ample evidence that Parker was relatively unstoppable, blowing past Brewer (or Bassy or Foye) if they tried to deny his movement, yet sticking the jumper if they didn't. Tim Duncan (who had 30) and Roger Mason (26) were more than just bit players in this also. But this time, Minnesota could match fire with fire. After Foye nailed a 20-footer that served notice that he as well as Miller needed attention on the perimeter, Jefferson twice responded to single-coverage in the low left block by banking in up-and-under buckets going baseline on outside shoulder spin moves. Then, in the second overtime, you had Foye twice assisting Jefferson on easy baskets, followed by Foye twice finding himself free in the corner outside the packed-in defense, getting feeds from Gomes and Big Al, respectively, and swishing two 23-footers on either side of the three-point arc.

This, of course, was the reason for optimism when the Wolves acquired Miller in the draft day deal this summer. There were no series of possessions in the extended crunch time of this double OT ballgame when the Spurs clearly sussed out and stymied the Wolves' offense. The game was ultimately decided by the Spurs' ability to grab two offensive rebounds, prolonging the clock and enabling them to score the winning points by bleeding the clock and provoking fouls in the final seconds.

2. Little Things To Love

My skepticism about Kevin Love's immediate ability to contribute is steadily being eroded by the depth of little things he brings to the game. Like most others who "know how to play," Love has confident instincts that produce quick reactions, like throwing the ball off your opponent as you are falling out of bounds, or knowing when trying for a block is just going to risk a three point play and instead making the hard foul. More subtly, it is knowing first if you need to rotate over on help defense, and, if so, when best to go to be disruptively effective. It is knowing when to make a pass that probes and when to simply maintain rapid ball movement around the perimeter. Or when to sell out and totally crash the boards and when to lurk for a putback but prioritize getting back on D.

The right and wrong answers to these things generally can't be measured on the chalkboard, but on one's innate feel for the flow of the game and one's quickly-gleaned knowledge of what the other players on the floor are capable of doing. Love has very good instincts and is a quick study to boot. After tonight's game, Wittman lamented that he turned down some open looks late in the game, but the way his teammates were humming, combined with his own 4-13 FG accuracy, proves he can exercise shrewd self-restraint. With 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 6 trips to the line, and numerous times where he stuck his arms and hands in the rebound scrum to keep balls alive or, at least once, dove on the floor to retrieve it, he's got a good blend of grit and finesse. I'm still not sold on a Jefferson-Love front line being large enough to adquately defend many teams in the NBA paint, and it is also plain that Love has minimal hops and a physique that looks susceptible to calorie absorption--chiselled he ain't. But the little instinctual strengths he possesses aren't likely to diminish over time, setting him up to be a trustworthy contributor sooner and more effectively than most 20-year old rookie power forwards just 6 feet, 8 inches tall. Tonight Witt started him over Gomes to begin the second half, another incremental rung up the totem pole. I'd still prefer a legit center next to Big Al most of the time. But even on his "off games' such as the Oklahoma City contest, this rook does enough things right to already merit steady rotations--especially if we regard this as another rebuilding year. 

3. Quick Hits

As much fun as tonight's game was, I'm still curious to see the Wolves play a really good team firing on all cylinders--would they get blown out by 30-40 points or sharpen their play to step up to the competition? It's a jolt to see the Spurs in this current incarnation. A team that has always prided itself on suffocating D, especially on the perimeter, and smart, rapid ball movement, now seeks to play Parker or (less often) Duncan one-on-one, kicking to spot-up shooters like Roger Mason or Finley if they can't make it happen themselves. LeBron and Kobe have nothing on the star-centric sets the Sputs were utilizing with Parker tonight, as his 36 shots, 10 dimes and 7 rebounds attest. At the other end of the court, there were at least three times when no box-outs created easy Wolves putbacks. Meanwhile, on the sidelines, the newly bearded Pops looks more like a beachcomber than someone on the verge of ripping the throat out of the least alert and rugged link in his defensive chain.

After losing to Dallas the previous night, the aged Spurs suddenly found themselves in a heated, scrappy, double-overtime tilt on the road. And this is where the championship pedigree of Parker and Duncan came to the fore. There was one play where Duncan's legendary veneer started to crack, and you could tell by his entire body language that he was going to try and ram the ball through Jefferson and into the hoop. But he'd telegraphed it to both Jefferson and Love, who were both waiting for his airborne lunge for a stuff, and sent him to the floor without a foul. But as he was landing on his back, Duncan's blocked shot was likewise coming down, and even as he hit the floor with humiliation now compounding his frustration, he grabbed the rock and sent it rolling toward Parker, extending a possession that eventually produced points. Seeing that enormous will to win, it makes it hard to doubt the Spurs. But then you realize this is the kind of heroics SA's Big 3 generate in high-stakes series like the conference finals. This was an early November game against the Timberwolves, and this old and proud team has months of this uphill battle to wage before they even begin needing to ramp up another notch for the postseason. That's when doubting the Spurs doesn't seem so foolish.

Telfair's first game back from suspension isn't likely to quiet the controversy over whether he should rob time from Foye, as Bassy looked sharp, shot well and sparingly (3-6 FG in 30:07) and reminded fans that purposeful flair is a point guard's signature.

Wittman used Bassy and Foye effectively together a couple of times, one of the bevy of different combos that both he and Pops were throwing on the floor at a dizzying pace. With Oberto slowly recovering from injury and Kurt Thomas obviously taking his own sweet time getting into vintage form, Pops has been utilizing super-small lineups. In the first half, Wittman followed suit and put McCants, Smith, Love Bassy, and Foye on the floor for what turned out to be some short-term again. And then in the third period, Michael Finley was (unsuccessfully) guarding Love for a while. These are strange times in San Antonios.